Intensification of Wastewater Treatment. Treatment of wastewater, including that in food production industry, is a serious problem. Today, industrial processing of agricultural materials without consideration of environmental concerns causes contamination not only of the atmosphere and water bodies, but also the soil, ruining its fertility. Sugar, alcohol, yeast and meat processing facilities are often surrounded by ‘dead zones’, contaminated due to inefficient treatment of waste.
Chemical and biological methods of wastewater treatment are used in food production industry.
Intensification of wastewater treatment in many cases can be achieved by coagulating particles under the influence of coagulants, flocculants, adsorbents and mixtures thereof. Coagulants of various origins are used to treat wastewater, including certain salts of iron, aluminum, polymer guanidine compounds etc.
Aluminum sulfate and its primary salts are widely used in purification of wastewater by separating suspensions and pre-treatment of water. The coagulating effect of aluminum salts is high both in acidic and alkaline media. A significant advantage of these coagulants is a sizable reduction of aluminum content after coagulation.
Sulfates and chlorides are the most often iron salts used. Other coagulants are obtained by chlorination of iron filings in water solution and anodic dissolution of iron in solutions of sodium chloride and sulfuric acid.
Biological purification of wastewater is a promising direction since wastewater of the food production industry contain many substances which are easily oxidized by microorganisms: proteins, hydrocarbons and fats. However, most of treatment facilities in food production involve mechanical methods or treatment in filtration fields (by extensive ground methods) which cannot achieve the desired results and lags behind the modern requirements to the process.
Intensification of Wastewater Treatment. A very important and complex problem in both anaerobic and aerobic treatment of wastewater is the presence of solved nitrogen in the water. Insufficient removal of ammonium from wastewater contaminates underground and surface water by toxic ammonium, nitrates and nitrites. These substances stimulate the growth of algae and reduce the amount of solved oxygen in natural water bodies.
The natural circulation of nitrogen is closely connected to the water cycle. The research of nitrogen transformation in the biosphere draws interest lately. The high content of organic and inorganic nitrogen compounds has a negative effect not only on water ecosystems, but on the biosphere as a whole. The presence of nitrogen in the form of ammonium can also cause undesired consequences. Particularly, decomposition of ammonium salts release toxic ammonia. Besides, oxidation of ammonium nitrogen reduces the content of oxygen in the water to 22-44%. The result of reaction of ammonia with active chlorine in decontamination at drinkable water preparation facilities is the formation of chloramines, which are toxic and mutagenic. In general, increase chlorine absorption by water and reduction of decontamination degree has been noticed in the process of preparation of water with increased content of ammonium, which is unacceptable for household supply.
The most complicated part of the problem with nitrogen compounds in wastewater is the removal of ammonium nitrogen. Particular attention is paid to this process.
Removal of nitrogen from wastewater is possible with various technological and biotechnological measures. They mostly involve improvements of process equipment, such as the use of biofilters, rotating contactors etc.
We recommend to take a look at GlobeCore’s wastewater treatment intensification equipment.